The good thing about the combo jack is that it works with the hundreds of 3.5mm phone headsets which a lot of people already carry. There is a wide range of these splitters available on the market, spanning a range of price and quality points. (newer Blackberry, iPhone, etc. headsets).

See comments below this article for additional customer tried / recommended splitters, or check the "Related Links" to the article to view the related forum discussions on this topic.

I found the following compatible headsets, today. The GE VoIP All-in-One Foldable Headset (Model: 95432) and the GE VoIP All-in-One Headset (Model: 98974). I just ordered the foldable one. Hopefully, they're of good quality.

i bought this splitter for the combo jack, and while it'll output sound via the headphone side (from iTunes, e.g.), my thinkpad (t420) won't recognize any input from the microphone side (from an actual microphone). it defaults to the built-in mic and won't give me any other options. any ideas on how i can activate the microphone part of the combo jack? thanks!

In order to get an external microphone working with my G510 I use a splitter cable with two inputs, headset and mic. When powering up the splitter cable must be disconnected. After powering up the notebook I plug in the splitter cable first, then the headset and finally the external microphone into the splitter cable.

Using this three step sequence is the only way having the external microphone recognized by the notebook. After hours of searching on the web, without result, I discovered this by trial and error.

Turning on the notebook with the mic in place will result in not having recognized the external microphone. Maybe this is because of the low impendance of the microphone or low power output, I have no idea, But my three step sequence will always result in recognizing my external mic on my G510 with combo audio jack.

As previously stated, the Lenovo “Combo” jack is not well suited for microphone input. In fact the users’ guide for my E545 expressly states it “does not support a conventional microphone”. Chances are, you may want to feed your laptop line-level audio, and you may have a need for stereo if you’re getting your audio from a music related source. A better way of getting that audio into your machine is to use a USB audio input device which converts audio to a digital format and inputs it using the USB connector. A recommended input device is the Behringer UCA202 which is available on Amazon and elsewhere. There are also a number of other USB converters available on-line.

I appreciate the candid remarks here about what the combo jack is "not well suited" for. Those who've been plagued with this issue have probably looked around the internet, and have seen elsewhere some misleading information about ways to "fix" this annoyance. I have a Lenovo U430P, and I have spent weeks, and way too much money, to discover you CANNOT, in any of the ways suggested, use a "reguar",external standalone microphone in the stupid "combo jack", as the OP wishes.

At least, that's what I have found with the Lenovo U430P. Maybe some would benefit from what I've found, although I realize your results may vary on other models.

1. The "Headset Buddy" will NOT work with any regular microphone, nor is it advertised for that. It is for a headset, not a standalone mic. There is NO kind of "splitter" that I can find, that will do this. Please do not waste your money that way, if you want to use a conventional mic.

2. The "Rockit" and similar devices do NOT work for this -- it is also made for a headset, and is mainly for smartphones. If you try it with a standalone mic, and a laptop combo port, you may get some sound after a lot of fiddling, but it will be a horrible racket.

3. The Turtle Beach Amigo II is a simple external USB sound card that is good for listening to headphones if your sound card breaks, and I believe mine used to work with an external mic on older laptops that had a real, dedicated microphone jack. But its mic connection will NOT work with my U430P, or perhaps in any Win 8.1 laptop...

4. The smaller, similar USB sound card by Sabrent will NOT do anything for you. I have bought some Sabrent products that work, but this is not one of them.

5. You CANNOT fix this problem with any software settings in WIndows 8.1 or Realtek. It does NOT help to check or uncheck this or that box in audio settings. It does NOT help to uninstall Realtek High Definition Audio.

Face it: Lenovo and the other hardware mfrs deliberately killed the microphone port as you knew it. It is not coming back, because they imagine nobody wants to use a real microphone in a microphone port, at least not on a laptop. Don't fall for alleged workarounds -- they did this on purpose, and they need to admit that you CANNOT use a micrphone the way you used to. The assumption is that the only mic you'll use is the tiny bud in a headset, and that you really want just one jack for listening and talking. Maybe that's true for some, but the tradeoff is that the laptop designers have killed the mic port, not improved it.

Now, what DOES work for a "real" microphone? In a word, USB. Not the Amigo II or the Sabrent, but a suitable USB external audio device.

1. You can get a great USB micrrophone for less $ than I spent trying to make the "combo port" work. The Blue "Snowball" is fantastic and even the under-$10 USB mic I tried is usable, if noisy. Or,

2. A full-service USB external soundcard -- I got the Creative Soudblaster XF Surround 5.1, for pretty cheap because it's the "old" model, and it works great with any mic I plug into it.

So that's been my experience. Others may have found simpler tweaks that work, but I am very skeptical they will work with the U430P or frankly other modern laptops with that ridiculous "combo" port. Good luck, folks -- I hope this helps somebody.

Hi I have a lenovo Yoga 3 Pro 1370 and I m using a combo mic/earphone but the computer does not respond to the michrophone. Only if I bring it very close to my mouth and then it is distorted, please...HELP!!!

The purpose of this particular article was to explain the combination port which was a design change made some 5 years ago. As there are thousands of system and OS combinations, with various sound cards and control panels, it is beyond the scope of the article, or ongoing support through comments to explain and resolve all manner of microphone compatibility and performance issues.

Some systems may want to "see" the combination plugged in on boot up, while others may switch properly if the jack is plugged in after the system is started up. General advice is to check the settings in the various audio control panels to make sure the source / slider setting levels are properly set.

If you have difficulty getting your microphone to work, please start a thread in the discussion area of the community. Please include the system model in the title of the new thread, and include details about your OS version, microphone, Y cable and audio panels settings in your post. This way, the community will best be able to help you.

I would like to record audio from a cassette player on my E545 running Windows 7. I have tried connecting a cable from the headphone output on the player to the "combo audio jack", but I am not seeing any signal using "Smart Audio". Is it possible to do this or will I need to get some kind of usb audio device?